Ankur Warikoo Profile picture
Sep 25, 2020 20 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Mistakes I made with my money.

A thread...
We grew up without any money.
Perpetually in debt. Hand to mouth existence.

Which is why I grew up hating money.
I thought it was the cause of all our problems.

And I never wanted money to rule over me.
What I didn't realize though that this desire to dismiss money, led me to disrespect it.

Because I had a knack of making money, I never really spent any effort in understanding how to maintain and grow it.

In the process making a lot of mistakes.
I took loans to buy real estate.
Assuming the price appreciation will take care of the interest rate I pay.

I didn't take into account taxes
I didn't take into account inflation

I didn't do the math that to get a respectable return, the price will have to grow ~20% yoy
Whenever I made any extra cash, instead of paying off the loan, I invested it in startups.
Convinced that the startup will multiply my money several times over.

I basically went to a casino convinced I would make money enough to pay my loans.
That's what I did!
I invested in illiquid assets - startups, real estate.
And rarely in liquid assets - stocks, gold.

So when tough times happened, I had a lot of "paper wealth" but no cash.
Which meant taking even more debt.

Never trying to paying it back.
Because hey, the previous tweet!
For an entire decade I took lower than market salary, over indexing on equity.
I believed the equity will make me much much more than the salary ever would.

So when things didn't end up the way it was expected, I was left with no wealth.
I over indexed on the future.
Continued to maintain my lifestyle when I should have lowered it.
Maxed my credit cards.
Took on more debt.

All in the hope that one mega event in the future will solve all of it.
I invested in stocks when the markets when high, in the hope of making fast money.
I sold in panic when market tanked, so that I didn't lose money.

It should have been the exact opposite.
Whenever in need of money, I broke my MF and FD to generate cash.
I basically broke compounding.

I persisted with it during the painful slow growth period.
And just when it was about to take off, I clipped its wings.
I discouraged my wife from investing in MFs and FDs and buying gold.
She still did.

I mocked her, laughed at her.
Challenged her to a return comparison at the end of the decade.

It was her investment that saved us.
Not once, thrice.
Because I hated money, I never respected it.
And I realized that money didn't respect me either.

While I knew how to make it, I never understood how to preserve it.
How to grow it.

Today I think I know.
1. Taxes are a thing. A real thing.
Always look at your tax-adjusted returns when comparing.

2. Inflation is a thing. A real thing.
Money loses value over time. Always include that in your return calculation.
3. Compounding rests on a very important element - time. You need time to witness compounding in action. Give it time. A lot of time.

4. Liquidity is critical. Invest in away that you can withdraw cash whenever you need. Else what's the point?
5. If you have excess cash, wait.
Wait for the right opportunity.
Wait patiently.
Wait for markets to drop.
Wait.
The price you buy at, determines your return.

"No one wants to get rich slowly"
- Warren Buffet
6. When in your 20s, live like a pauper.
Live within your means.
Pay your bills, and then pay yourself by investing.
Pay for your desires the last.
Do not take loans for your desires.

7. Take loans only for things that appreciate in value. Education. Maybe a house. Only one!
8. Do not invest according to your echo chamber.
Angel invest b/c you are a founder.
Stocks b/c you are in finance.
Gold b/c you are a trader.

Get to learn and respect all asset classes.
9. Double down on what is working rather than diversify. Diversification will not yield super-normal returns.
Owning more of what is working, will.

10. Allow compounding to happen.
It takes time. Decades.
For the longest time it will seem nothing is happening.
Its happening!
The biggest lesson that I have learnt about money is that money buys you freedom.
And freedom is a privilege.
For the longest time I denied myself this freedom.
And today when I have it, I realized all the mistakes I made that prevented me to get this freedom.

These mistakes make me wise today, at 40.
I hope they make you wise today, much earlier for you!

Fin.

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More from @warikoo

Sep 9
20 books that taught me more than school and college ever did.

For those who can't afford, I am giving away these books for free (read below)


1/ Rework
by @jasonfried @dhh
The book changed me. Threw open a different way of looking at the world.

Remains my most gifted book of all times.amzn.to/3MBqdmb


2/ Better Under Pressure
by Justin Menkes

This book saved me in 2016, when I was down and about during the worst phases of my startup life.amzn.to/3XzE6aM
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Sep 7
I received an email recently which broke my heart.

(Trigger alert - this email can cause a lot of distress by simply reading it!)Image
Imagine:
Salary of 1.2L pm + 20K pm from brother + 30K pm pension from mother.

BUT:
Has a 25L loan.
12L credit card debt.
Personal loan of 17L with 36K EMI.
Home loan of 70K EMI.
This is not a rare case.
This is a common phenomenon.

1/ Easy access to credit.
2/ Pressure to buy a house in the 20s itself.
3/ Pressure for a grand wedding.

Household income of ~18L, and yet, being unable to pay for even food!
Read 7 tweets
Aug 28
1995
I was 15.
Papa had just lost his job.
We were down to our last few thousands in the bank.
He went to the bank to withdraw 10K.
On his way back, someone robbed him of it. Image
We plunged into chaos.
Financial debt.
Personal favours.
Collectors at our doorstep.

I remember days where ma papa would skip a meal, because we didn't have money.
Ma's salary of Rs. 1000 as a primary school teacher was supporting us.
At the peak of this crisis, we received news that the government would pay compensation for Papa’s house in Kashmir, which was destroyed by now.

Accepting the compensation meant he would never, ever have the home he grew up in.
But that money would save us.
And it did.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 29
Fat-free at 43!
How I shed only 10kgs in a year to get to this shredded look.

The 3T Model
1. Track
2. Train
3. Transform

(long post alert - you might want to bookmark this for future reference)
1/ Track

Track your calorie-in (how much you eat) and calorie-out (how much you burn).

An average adult burns/spends around 2000-2500 calories a day.
One can use a smart-watch/ring to figure this out.

However, our food intake is rarely tracked.
Which makes all the difference.Image
The ONLY way to lose fat/weight in the body is to get to a calorie deficit.
Which means, you consume lesser calories than you spend.

When we get to a 7000-7500 calories deficit, we lose ~1kg of fat.
(the reverse is also true - 7.5K calorie excess = 1kg fat gain)Image
Read 25 tweets
Mar 10
20 years back, at the age of 24, I got my first ever job.
It paid me Rs. 14,746 per month in hand.

In 2 years, at 26, I was earning 12L per annum.
Another 3 years, it reached 33L per annum.

Here is how it happened...
In Mar '04, at the age of 24, I dropped out of my PhD program at Michigan State University and came back to India.

What made the decision easy was the 100% scholarship I was on.
There was no tangible loss of money.
Just the intangible burden of letting down everyone in my world.
With no goals, no plans and no visibility over my future, the first thing I needed was financial independence and stability.

I had to get a job.
Any job.

I tapped into my (limited) network, spoke to my friends, applied through newspaper adverts, went for walk-in interviews.
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Mar 5
Do you know which animal kills most humans every year?

If you are thinking wild animals — lions, elephants, tigers — no.
If you are thinking snakes — good guess, but not the right one.
If you are thinking mosquitos — great guess. That's #2.

Do you know what's #1?
Humans :)

WE kill more humans than any other animal every year.
War, violence, fights, terrorism.

We somehow believe that the world is split into us and them.
And we feel that for someone to win, someone else has to lose.
That's what we have been fed every day.
That the world is finite — its wealth, growth, and opportunities.
And the only way one gets wealth, growth or opportunity is to snatch it away from someone else.
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